


Missing Connections

by scribbletea



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Fluff, Gen, M/M, No Persona 5 Strikers Spoilers, Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers, Pining, Post-Persona 5: The Royal, Pre-Relationship, i prommy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-14 03:21:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29660988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scribbletea/pseuds/scribbletea
Summary: Why was this so hard? He was only at the door of his rival, ally, friend?, who he hadn’t spoken to since February because he and everyone else presumed he was dead.It really shouldn’t be this difficult.Akechi arrives at LeBlanc a little too late.
Relationships: Akechi Goro & Sakura Sojiro, Akechi Goro & Yoshizawa Sumire | Yoshizawa Kasumi, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 6
Kudos: 99





	Missing Connections

Akechi’s eye twitches.

His fingers flinch on the air around the door handle, as if there was some sort of invisible barrier or  otherwordly force preventing him from just opening the  infernal thing.

Why was this so hard? He was only at the door of his rival, ally,  friend? , who he hadn’t spoken to since February because he and everyone else presumed he was dead.

It really shouldn’t be this difficult.

He exhaled long and slow, willing the tension out of his fingers. Summoning the courage, he gripped the handle and pushed open the door quickly.  The pleasant aroma of ground coffee and the soft light of the café greet him first . 

“Kurusu,  it’s been such a long- ”

The person at the counter looks up from what they’re doing and meets his eyes. Akechi’s heart stops. 

“You don’t have to flatter me, son, I know I’m not getting any younger,” Sojiro says, pausing in the middle of cleaning a cup.

“Sakura-san!” Akechi finds himself unintentionally  shouting . The cafe was empty, devoid of any other patrons who may have witnessed Akechi’s  embarrassing entrance to his relief. 

“Sorry to intrude, I came to see-”

“Akira?”

“Yes,” he said, a tinge of strain in his voice. “Is he here?” He asked, glancing past Sojiro as if Akira might be hiding behind him. Sojiro’s  face pulled into a frown.

“You just missed him”

Akechi’s blood went cold.

“I-Is that right?”

“I’m afraid so.  He just left for a trip ”

“A trip?”

“Yes.” Sojiro failed to elaborate, “Would you like a cup of coffee?”

“... I’d love one.”

Sojiro set a freshly brewed cup down in front of him a few minutes later and Akechi took it graciously. “Thank you,” he says, giving Sojiro a polite smile which the other returns. Akechi reaches for his wallet.

“No need for that” Sojiro  booms all of a sudden, startling him. He hadn’t noticed that Sojiro was watching and saw him move for his wallet. He was impressed by the other’s perceptiveness.

“It’s on the house, you’re one of our most  valued customers after all,”.

Akechi is taken aback by the kindness Sojiro shows him, someone he only knew through association and had no obligation to be kind to. Most adults regarded him with condescension or thinly veiled envy.

“It's nice to see you again, I kinda missed having you kiddos around all the time,”

“Kinda?” Akechi inquired, amused.

“Yea, you guys would make a real racket upstairs. Bad for business,” Sojiro replied, drawing his eyebrows together and feigning irritation, which made Akechi chuckle slightly.

A silence settled between them, but it wasn’t the uncomfortable kind. Akechi took a tentative sip from his coffee while Sojiro returned to the cup he had been cleaning when Akechi first walked in.  The familiar taste soothed Akechi , it was comforting to see some things hadn't changed since he’d been gone.

“He missed you too, you know,” Sojiro says suddenly and Akechi almost chokes mid-sip.

He swallowed thickly, the scalding liquid burning his throat on the way down, “Really?” he asked, hoping he seemed unaffected, “What gave you that impression?”.

“He talks about you all the time,”

A soft blush didn’t creep over Akechi’s face, so much as it set his face ablaze . It felt too warm in the café all of a sudden.

“Is that so,”

Akechi voice betrayed him, sounding a little more choked up than he’d like it to be. Thankfully Sojiro didn’t press further, though judging by the way he raised an eyebrow in amusement, he probably already  sensed what Akechi was thinking.

“You wanted to surprise him, that’s why you came today right?”. Akechi had hoped that fact slipped Sojiro’s mind,  but perhaps it had been too wishful on his part .

“I’m sure he would have appreciated it if he was here. Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me, I won’t let him know you stopped by. I can let you know when he’s back if you’d like,”

He took a moment to compose himself , coughing into his arm in a flimsy excuse to cover his  cheeks .

“I’d appreciate that greatly, thank you,”

Sojiro pulled out his phone and they exchanged numbers as Akechi drained the last drop of coffee from his cup.

He set it down on the saucer with a soft clink, “Thank you Sakura-san, it’s been very nice catching up with you”

“See you around kiddo, feel free to stop by at any time,”

Normally Akechi hated when  adults treated him like a teenager, but he found himself not minding it from Sojiro . He waves lightly, slipping a thousand yen note under his saucer before he leaves.

Akechi can hear the faint jingling of the bell as the door swings shut behind him. A warm summer breeze blew through the alleyway, tousling his hair. So his ‘surprise’ hadn’t gone as expected, but it could’ve been a lot worse.

His phone buzzes in his pocket. That was odd, he didn’t take Sojiro for the type of person to send a contact confirmation text so soon, he was still just outside LeBlanc. He whips out his phone, and sure enough, there’s a message;  his eyes widen when he reads the name of the sender is .

‘ _ How did it go???’ _

He doesn’t even have time to type out a response before his phone begins to ring.

“Yoshizawa-san” he picks up with a foreboding tone. There is silence from the other end. 

“...Did it not go well?”

“YOU TOLD ME HE WAS HERE”

“Was he not?! He texted me just yesterday that he was coming back”

“HE’S ON A ROAD TRIP SUMI,”

“HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW?” she finally yelled back. 

Akechi sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose and the sound of tapping  filled his ears .

“Oh, would you look at that, Akira-senpai did text me about that. Three hours ago,”

“...”

“...”

“I’M SORRY,”

He runs a hand through his bangs, clutching his forehead.

“I’m not actually mad,” he said using a softer tone.

“But you’re disappointed?”

“Yes,”

Akechi is distressed when he thinks he hears a  sob on her end.

“I’m really sorry Goro. I know how desperately you wanted to see him,”

Akechi grit his teeth slightly, “I wouldn’t use the word  _ desperate _ ,”. She ignored him. “When he comes back let’s visit him together, ok?”.

Akechi softens, he really wasn’t mad at Sumire, sometimes he had the tendency to slip into his more  blunt speech without meaning to though, which he had been working on.

“Yes, I’d like that”

“Great!” she sounded pleased, which made his lip tug into a  tired smile. She hummed cheerfully on the other end before being interrupted, there was some commotion on the other end.

“Oops. Sorry, I should be getting back to practice,”

“Ah, right. Good luck with your training Sumi, I’ll talk to you later,”

“Right. See you!”

Sumire hung up with a  cheerful goodbye, but not before promising again to meet up with him soon. Akechi pocked his phone with a grin. He could wait until Kurusu returned. He was only going on a road trip after all, what was the worst that could happen?

A lot, he decided when he remembered who Akira would be traveling with. Not to mention how he himself seemed to be a magnet for trouble. If it didn’t find him first, he was probably the cause.

“Damn it Kurusu,” he huffed, “You better come back to me in one piece,”

**Author's Note:**

> Needed to finish something for the sake of finishing something so here’s something to celebrate the English release of P5S!! My copy won’t be here for a couple of days :,), but I am so excited. I’ve had time to cope with the fact that Akechi won’t be in it, but I still can’t believe he isn’t even mentioned? So here’s me doing Atlus’s job for them.  
> You can find me on [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/scribbletea) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/scribbleteas) :D


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